Wednesday, September 28, 2011

SciFinder Scholar Training

References, substances, reactions, oh my!

SciFinder Scholar has moved online, and a lot has changed. Peter Blasi, from Chemical Abstracts Service, will be here October 12 at 12:30 in Library 264A to provide training on this important resource for research in Chemistry. Mr. Balsi will show you how to get the most out of your research.

An RSVP is required. Please RSVP at the Library web site.

Please also complete a SciFinder registration if you plan to attend.

Friday, September 23, 2011

How to Use the MTSU Library- Academic Success Series

Tuesday, October 4th at 4:30pm - Walker Library 272

Come play BINGO and learn what successful MTSU students know about the
library.

Topics covered include:

  • Time-saving online research sites and citation tools
  • Getting the most out of Google Scholar
  • Tips for finding an open computer in the library
  • Library tools and services

Future Academic Success Series cover
  • Thinking critically
  • How to give a winning presentation (NOT in the C. Sheen way, we hope)
  • How to prepare for final exams

All sessions meet in the Library. Click here for more details.

Bingo Cards. Photography. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 23 Sep 2011. http://quest.eb.com/media/image.htm?mediaId=132_1251692

Banned Books Week

Celebrate YOUR freedom to read during Banned Books Week, September 24−October 1, 2011

You can check out books from our cart of banned and challenged books in the Walker library atrium.

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

The American Library Association has compiled information about some of the most challenged books from last year.

For more information, visit http://www.ala.org/bbooks/

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

New Resources for Digital Images Available

We have new resources that give you access to millions of images to enhance your research and class projects.








ARTstor Digital Library:

The ARTstor database contains digital collections from over 130 museum and cultural heritage centers including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the American Folk Art Museum, the The Art Institute of Chicago, and the The British Library, to name a few.

1.3+ million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences

Multi-disciplinary Subject Guides

ARTstor Mobile for iPad, iPhone, and iTouch

New collections monthly from 200+ contributors

ARTstor is a non-profit online digital image library designed to serve educational and scholarly communities. ARTstor provides tools and software to search, present, and share digital images both online and offline for research and pedagogical purposes.

Instructors can create folders and add descriptions to share with students. For instructor level access, contact mepozzeb@mtsu.edu.















Image Quest:

Image Quest is the best and broadest collection of proprietary educational imagery. It includes images from 43 of the best collections: Corbis, Dorling Kindersley Images, Getty Images, the National Portrait Gallery of London, the National Geographic Society, Oxford Scientific and more!

Currently Over 2,000,000 Images with plans to add many more

Instructors can incorporate the images in their classes and research

Students can use the site for homework assignments and course projects

All images are rights-cleared for non-commercial, educational use!

Images can be downloaded, printed, saved OR emailed as jpegs or gifs










Berg Fashion Library:

The authority on world dress, the Berg Fashion Library is a unique online portal which offers fully cross-searchable access to an expanding range of Berg content collections including the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion online, e-books, reference works, images, and much more.

Students and scholars in disciplines as diverse as anthropology, art history, history, sociology, geography, folklore, museum studies, theatre, and cultural studies as well as fashion and textiles will find the Berg Fashion Library a treasury of fascinating insights into people and cultures all over the world.

These resources are accessible through our website at library.mtsu.edu,click on Databases A-Z.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Proxy Borrowing for Faculty

Each semester, we get many requests about proxy borrowing from MTSU faculty. They want to send over their ID with their graduate student assistant in hopes that we can check out materials onto their (the faculty member's) card. While we definitely don't want to inconvenience anyone wanting to check out library materials, it is for the faculty's protection that we have them complete the proxy borrowing form first.

Here are the complete details, as posted on our website. (The form is located under Library Forms as well as in this information section for faculty under Circulation.)

MTSU faculty and administrators may designate a graduate assistant, student worker or staff member to act as a Proxy Borrower. The designated individual is able to borrow books and other materials for the faculty member on the faculty account.
• To designate a proxy borrower, the faculty member should complete and sign the faculty portion of the Proxy Student Borrowing Form.
• The student who will act as the proxy should complete their portion of the form and bring the form, their own student ID and the faculty ID to the Circulation Desk to establish the account. After that, only the student’s ID will be needed to borrow materials.
• A processing time of 24-48 hours is required before materials can be borrowed utilizing the student’s ID.
• Student proxies borrow on behalf of the faculty member. The faculty member is responsible for all materials borrowed.

What is that thing on the Centennial Cake?

The Centennial Cake in the atrium is topped with a coconut shell fashioned into a head. Ever wonder what it has to do with MTSU? Thanks to Mayo Taylor, intrepid librarian, we have the answer.
That’s Harvey. Back in the 1950s there was a fierce football rivalry between MTSU and Tennessee Tech. The competition garnered the interest of Fred Harvey of Harvey’s Department Store, who awarded an Alaskan totem pole to be used as a rotating game prize. The plan was for the winner of the annual clash between the football teams to house the prize for the following year but it became a great sport for the other school to steal the totem pole, usually in the week leading up to the next big game. MTSU always called the totem pole Harvey but at Tennessee Tech it was knows as the Shinny-Ninny because of the antics of a school mascot who liked to feign comic fits when he had control of the pole.

This and other odd trivia can be found by searching through the online editions of Midlander that are included in the MTSU Memory digital collection.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Science & Spirituality Brown Bag

4th Annual MTSU Science & Spirituality Forum 2011: What Can The Dying Teach The Living?

First Brown Bag lunch discussion - Setting the Stage
Thursday, September 15
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Room 475, Walker Library
Bring your own lunch (brown bag optional)

Scott Owings, Chaplain, Guardian Hospice, Franklin, Tennessee
Jackie Clevenger, Chaplain, Middle Tennessee Medical Center, Murfreesboro

The MTSU Science & Spirituality Forum hosts brown bag lunch discussions on a topic that leads up to a symposium speaker. This year’s theme is What Can The Dying Teach The Living? Join us for the first of several brown bags this semester.

For more information on the forum visit: http://library.mtsu.edu/spirituality/aboutus.php

Friday, September 9, 2011

Constitution Week Activities




MTSU Centennial Constitution Week 2011

Constitutional Responsibility and Civil Society

September 11-20, 2011

Click here for a list of events.


What is Constitution Day?

The signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787, by the Founding Fathers is one of the most important and influential events in American history, establishing the many rights and freedoms “We the People” enjoy today.


September 17, Constitution Day is celebrated each year all over the country. MTSU is celebrating Constitution Week, September 11 - 17, 2011 with many activities all over campus. These events are sponsored by: The American Democracy Project, Distinguished Lecture Committee, James E. Walker Library, MTSU Public History Program, Center for Student Involvement and Leadership, John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

John Adams Exhibit Activities THIS WEEK

The Walker Library is one of only 20 libraries in the country picked to host John Adams: Unbound, a traveling exhibit funded by an NEH grant. John Adams Unbound explores Adams’ personal library – a collection of 3,500 books willed by Adams to the people of Massachusetts and deposited in the Boston Public Library in 1894.

This remarkable collection of books provides first-hand insight into how John Adams shaped American history and how he was shaped through his lifelong dedication to reading and books. Through photo-reproductions of these annotated volumes, viewers will witness one of our founding fathers wrestling with intellectual and political ideas at every stage in his long life – as a boy, university student, Boston lawyer, revolutionary, diplomat, President and citizen of the early American republic.

Exhibition Dates August 17 through September 30, 2011

Location Walker Library, 1st floor

Events

**Opening reception
Thursday, August 25th at 10:30 a.m.
1st floor just past the elevators
Come see this exhibit before the students move back to campus.

**Speakers Panel
Tuesday, September 13th at 11:20 a.m.
1st floor just past the elevators

The Legacy of John Adams: a panel of MTSU experts speak on John Adams and his lasting influence.

**Community Event

Wednesday, September 14th at 1:00 p.m.
1st floor just past the elevators
Elementary school kids get to meet our nation's second president!
SORRY, THIS ONE IS ALREADY FULL!

**Print on the replica 18th century Printing Press

Thursday, September 15 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Walker Library Portico (in front of the Library, by the columns)
Print your own copy of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on the University’s replica 18th-century printing press


This is Constitution Week, check out all the events going on on campus.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

New Electronic Resources!

The Walker Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of eight amazing new resources to enhance your research and class projects. These electronic resources (accessible through our website) include millions of images, primary documents on slavery and Jewish life, the Nixon papers, historical and ethnographic videos and much, much more! Look for specific resource details in the coming weeks.

Images sources:
· ARTStor - 1.3+ million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences.
· Image Quest – 2+ million images, rights-cleared for non-commercial, educational use.
· Berg Fashion Library – Images and reference works on fashion and the history of dress.

Primary Sources from Adam Matthew Digital:
· Medieval Travel Writing - European travel writing from the later medieval period.
· Medieval Family Life - medieval correspondence and ephemera
· China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980 - Manuscripts providing insights into changes in China.
· The Nixon Years, 1969-1974 - Nixon’s handling of numerous crises from a British, European and Commonwealth perspective.
· Victorian Popular Culture - Popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
· The American West - original manuscripts, maps, ephemeral material and rare printed sources on western Americana.
· Everyday Life & Women, c1800-1920 - Primary source material from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History, Duke University and The New York Public Library.
· Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice - Documents from archives and libraries across the Atlantic world.
· Jewish Life in America - Original manuscript collections from the American Jewish Historical Society in New York.
· The Grand Tour - Accounts of the English abroad, c1550-1850
· Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700 - Manuscripts written or compiled by women in the British Isles

Multimedia:
· Ethnographic Video online – Works of documentary filmmakers of the 20th century, including interviews, raw footage, field notes, study guides, and more.
· World History in Video - documentaries exploring human history from the earliest civilizations to the late twentieth century


Journals and Citation Indexes:
· Web of Science – Arts and Humanities index – search for articles track citations for over 2,300 of the leading arts and humanities journals.
News
· Tennessean – Tennessee’s newspaper of record. Now available from 2002-present



To access these resources go to library.mtsu.edu, click on Find Resources and then scroll down to Databases A-Z. Need help getting started with finding information? Go to the Reference Desk on the 1st floor of the Library or click here to get help from a Librarian.